FFXI Reviews, damn you!

[Nenjin]

The damn you was pre-emptive.

From what I've seen and heard about it, FFXI sounds like it could be a lot of fun. But, I'm in school right now, jobless, and slowly chipping away at a savings account, so I want to make sure any time or money I invest with a game is going to be a worthy return.

So, when you've played to the point you feel confident in writing a review, do so! "They will come back, come back again, as long as the Red Earth rolls. He never wasted a tree or a leaf, why should he squander souls?"

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions

[EZ_Jaeden The Stinker]

My friend picked it up, and is updating me while he checks it out.
The 2 things that seem to initially be really a bummer:
1) Not being able to choose your starting server.
I guess you can just keep deleting and re-rolling your character untill you both wind up on the same one, but what a pain.
However that I can live with and work around. But the second...
2) No new U.S. servers.
WTF?! That would be like me going back and starting up EQ right now.
Not only can I not start on a server with friends who can help each other out, but when I do start. There is already this hugely existing economy. Nobody will speak english. And the poor Japanese! All these newbs coming in that they wont understand...
Makes no sense to me. ~Jaeden~
~Nightshade~
*Smears peanut butter on her face, giggles maniacally, curtsies and vanishes*

[Nenjin]

I didn't get the random server assignment either, at least not when you could just continuelly re-roll. As far as I know, the Japanese are congretating on Fairy or Faerie server.

[EZ_Gyorg]

A friend said they did actually add new servers, but I don't know for sure.

[EZ_halsfield]

they will not be adding new servers unless there is need for it, aka tons of people sign up and they make a new server to handle the overflow.

if you want to pick your own server, find one of the many message boards that have a forum for world passes. Just find someone who is getting a worldpass for XxxX server and ask if they have a spot they wont be using on the worldpass. kind of a pain in the ass but if it really means that much to you its possible.

[EZ_Emmrys]

anyone know how much world passes cost? Would you be stuck on a given server for a while, saving up gil, in order to buy your way onto the server your friends are playing on?

If so, I'll just reroll heh. Emrysx and Lucy - Feral Lord
Emryss Spynetickler - Redeemed Rogue of Xegony
Proud Member of Tainted Twilight

[Caowyth]

Your friends would have to save up to buy a worldpass for you.

[EZ_halsfield]

it costs 100gil and moves up from there depending on the amount of people on that server.

cant reroll,once you are placed on a server at random all other characters will be put on that server as well.

[Lisboa]

That's sad. What were they thinking? And I can't imagine the pings would be very good if the servers are in japan.

[EZ_Luute Sixstring]

That completely blows, I dont foresee myself purchasing this game until US-only servers are declared. Back in EQ I used to get frustrated with begging newbies and/or inept group members, I cant even imagine how bad it will be if they dont even speak my language.

[freonsmurf]

Quote:50 gil is the number I keep hearing. Anyways you could buy a world pass. Create a new character on the same server using one of your five passes, and then have that char buy a pass, and continue the chain until you have all 15 characters with 4 passes each and the last having five. So, 61 passes. That is plenty enough to get a guild moved over and/


It's only wrong if you get caught.If consequences dictate my course of action I should play GOD

blog html
Hell

[Nenjin]

I'm guessing they assumed that if it rocked the house enough, they could always open a US branch and create a dedicated US server. Til then, they are probably assuming their biggest fan base is going to be Japan, and that's where their focus is going. They want to draw a profit.

[Lisboa]

The thing is it costs $1 per character, I don't think anyone will be creating 16 characters, Freonsmurf.

[EZ_Healo]

all characters are free for the first month, just make sure you delete you alts before your first billing month. I just feel soory for modem people. you have to download around 150 meg patch.

[Greldek]

Here is what Penny Arcade says about it:

Quote:The Inconvenience Fairy

Wed, October 29 2003 - 5:55 AM
by: Tycho

During the beta for Final Fantasy XI, we felt the exquisite new pleasures that had been designed by SquareSoft. Yes, it's pretty much an MMORPG, no, aside from fantastic art direction there isn't all that much to distinguish it, but as I said in a related post I play these games basically as a way to hang out. Once I learned that


your starting server is completely random,

that people must earn money in game to bring friends to their server by buying a World Pass,

that the amount of money you need to earn depends on how populated your server is,

that they aren't opening any new servers for the US launch which will inflate the price across the board,

and that even once you do get a World Pass from a friend it doesn't let you bring an existing character, you have to create a new one who won't be of comparable level to the person that brought you over there in the first @#%$ place,

the whole thing is stupid and I'm not their accountant, they can come up with some other way to load balance their servers if we're going to pay thirteen dollars a month for the privilege of frustration.
The US release apparently allows you to bring five people over instead of the original one, which doesn't really fix the problem - it just downgrades it from "absolutely insane" to "pretty ridiculous." In our rage, we even produced a comic on the subject. If I wanted to play with myself, I have a game that doesn't cost anything.

The thing is, at this very moment and realistically up until next year I don't have to put up with decisions like that. Have you looked at the @#%$ release list for the next seven days? The new Tony Hawk hits, kill.switch, Gladius, Top Spin, Rainbow Six 3, um... Quidditch, Call of Duty, Thief III, Fire Emblem, and God knows what else. I don't have to tolerate things like World Passes if I don't want to. I can simply amuse myself with the eruption of holiday titles and someone else can maintain the price of SquareEnix stock.

I was up pretty late playing Rainbow Six 3 last night, I'll post what I have here so far and then immediately start writing about R6.

(CW)TB out.

cookies are all spies


And a comic to go with it.

Hmm I can honestly say, with all the crap they are doing to make it suck. FFXI doesn't interest me at all. ~

[Elerion]

Quote:next seven days
Quote:Thief III

!

[Brelkor]

so Tycho was smokin something Brelkor the Blackhammer, The Masta Back Stabba, retired rogue

"Wake up on fire every day
And I never say goodbye
Pre-determined destiny
I've never been afraid to die"[i]
[i]

[EZ_Gobio]

EDIT:

Hi,

We don't allow personal attacks here. Please consider this a warning.

-Wraine Edited by: Wraine at: 10/30/03 7:47 am

[EZ_Emmrys]

Ok, since no one who's actually played it has written anything so far, I'll give my impressions based on about 4 hours of play so far.

After an install/patching process that lasted about 2.5 hours on cable, I finally fired up the game.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to choose my server. FYI, here's the deal with it.

Apparently it's this way in the interest of load balancing on the servers. You are randomly assigned a server upon character creation. Your assignment I'm sure depends on the populations of the servers.

If you want to join friends on a different server, you may do so in two ways:

1) Have your friends purchase a world pass on their server. The WP gives you 5-6 or so slots, and expires after a week. You give out a password to your friends, and upon char creation, they type in that password, and it starts them on your server.

Caveat here is that whenever you move servers, you restart at lv 1.

2) Create/delete new characters till you're randomly assigned to the server you want. Could take a little or a lot of time, but probably the best option IMO. The char creation process is short enough that it's relatively painless.

As far as Japanese vs North American things go, IMO it's not a problem at all. All the Jp players I've met have been super nice and helpful, and the ability to select from a common word list which is translated to jp is nice. The thing is, time differences will be the real separating factor. When I get on at 8EST, there simply aren't many Jp players still up.

It's been my experience that the Jp players are far more polite/helpful than the NA players have been.

Ok, so I installed the game, used the config tool to set my graphics options, then started it up. I watched a nifty opening movie (Square's always rock), and went on to create my Elvaan warrior.

Elvaan's are...elves, but not your normal elves. They are more a warrior race in FFXI than a "one with nature, attuned more to magic" type race.

The character creation process is smooth, and as you select male/female from races, you get a little 3D preview thing of your character...it's funny, when viewing females, they strut around with fashion show techno music playing. The cat race is female only, and apparently they roll around suggestively on the ground amd stretch and so forth.

So I chose my race/gender, face (8 to choose from for Elvaan), hair color, body size...think that's it.

Got the name I wanted right off the bat, which was cool. (Emrys). Then it placed me on leviathin server, and opened with a scripted scene involving some of the big wigs in town interacting with my new character.

Once all the opening stuff was out of the way, I went on to stand still for 20 minutes while I consulted the manual/quick guide to see how the hell to move around and deal with the horrible interface. When I say horrible, I MEAN horrible. You have two configurations to choose from, the default one being completely annoying and un-intuitive. It consists of using your mouse to drag a cursor around that you follow, but if you left click on anything but a valid target, this little menu comes up in the lower left of the screen. Honestly I don't have the energy to explain the default configuration, but it involves a lot of terrible mouse control, using menu that pops up with the numpad "-", and is nothing like any other MMORPG or FPS out there. Clearly it was designed for the PS2, and they did nothing to ease PC users into it.

The alternate one being more like what I'm used to in EQ with WASD movement, and I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds better.

You may not remap anything, and you have zero control over the UI. Your only recourse is to choose between the 2 control configs, and program macros to get around the clunky interface.

The camera, while easy to manipulate, appears to not do so well on its own. I find myself constantly numpad "5"ing to switch to 1st person and back to 3rd to reset the camera. Moving around in 1st person mode doesn't seem to be a good option as the mouse is super sensitive...at least in the default control config. Maybe that will improve under the WASD control. Using the mouse drag scheme to move about just plain sucks. Works for isometric and top down games, but NOT for 3D games, either in 1st or 3rd person.

So those are the sucky things, now for the good things:

Graphics are great, I have everything turned up, bump-mapping, etc, and it looks great and runs pretty well on my system:

Athlon 1.4GHz, 640 PC133 RAM, GF4Ti4600 128.

The art/stylization is wonderful as you'd expect from Square. It's taking time to get used to my Elvaan characters body shape, with longass arms, a long neck, small head, etc. I took screenies last night but can't get to them from work.

The job system rocks, I've loved it since FFT. I'm only lv 4 in warrior job, so I can't say much, but it appears that this system is VERY similar to FFTactics.

Weapon skills raise with use, and grant you with skills you can use in combat as, say, your Sword skill rises. You get inherent job traits and skills as you level up.

I've not done much, but it appears that there is MUCH to do aside from fight: mine, harvest, Blacksmith, cook, bonework, leatherwork, fish, grow plants in your "Mog Home", which is a private residence everyone gets, complete with moogle who can change your job, tend your bank, tend your plants. You can decorate your home as well.

There are trade-guilds for the crafting types. The equivalent of EQ guilds in FFXI are called LinkShells. Kind of strange but similar.

Mob types are varied and all look neat. Pretty much everything from the FF world is in FFXI, from mobs to skills to magic to weapons, etc.

There is so much more to talk about, but I've only experienced a tiny bit so I'm not qualified to talk about it.

Anyway, the UI/controls are a major stumbling block, as is the world pass/server deal, but there seem to be a TON of good things about the game, and I've enjoyed my brief time so far.

Emrysx and Lucy - Feral Lord
Emryss Spynetickler - Redeemed Rogue of Xegony
Proud Member of Tainted TwilightEdited by: Emmrys at: 10/30/03 7:25 am

[Brelkor]

Awww did i get flameded?

Cool writeup Emm, one of my co-workers is suposed to give me the rundown too.

[EZ_Emmrys]

quick followup.

Apparently you can customize the keymapping on the "Compact Keyboard" configuration, making it a much more "normal" control scheme. I think you're still rather limited in your control though.

It's almost as if you'd be better off playing with a PS2 controller attached to your box. =P Emrysx and Lucy - Feral Lord
Emryss Spynetickler - Redeemed Rogue of Xegony
Proud Member of Tainted Twilight

[EZ_Aenamae1]

I got used to the interface fairly quickly. I always used the arrow keys to move my character around in EQ so moving to the 8 4 6 2 keys on the numerical pad wasn't a big deal for me. I hardly even used the mouse when playing. F8 targets the closest NPC, and the tab scrolls through the nearest targets. If you are facing the thing you want to target, just hit enter to target it and enter again to interact with it. I do agree that the camera needs some work. There needs to be an option for how the camera will follow you. I'm still trying to remember the keyboard shortcuts, but I got 2 of the important ones down, alt+a for attack and alt+c to con mobs. Macros I haven't messed with yet, but I'm only level 3 so I have time still.

I absolutely love the little scripted events that happen when you go through a quest. It really gives the game a Final Fantasy feel. Plus, all the npc's I talked to had distinct personalities with definate squaresoft FF flavor.

For a mmorpg the graphics are top notch and ran smoothly on my machine. I haven't seen many spell effects, but what I've seen have been nice and colorful. Definately a step up from eq spell effects. Probably on par with daoc effects so far.

Bottom line is I'm having fun with it. All the Japanese players I've run into have been extremely polite. One of them actually followed me around when I went exploring in an area to high for me and healed me whenever I got agro from a mob. He never said anything, but I got the meaning of what he was trying to say with all the emotes and ^^ stuff he used. This game will be staying on my harddrive a while I think. Its a nice break when my guild isn't raiding.

[Krimzan]

Can you hook up a gamepad and play it with that?

If so I think it may just be teh win 4 me1!!

[Lisboa]

Yeah, I have a gamepad. Isn't there a lot of lag?

Need more reviews.

[EZ_Gnarwar Floatingbuffalo]

win


"A 40oz to freedom is the only chance I have to feel good even though i feel bad"Edited by: Gnarwar Floatingbuffalo at: 11/1/03 9:43 am

[EZ_Wemic]

Quote:
As far as Japanese vs North American things go, IMO it's not a problem at all. All the Jp players I've met have been super nice and helpful, and the ability to select from a common word list which is translated to jp is nice. The thing is, time differences will be the real separating factor. When I get on at 8EST, there simply aren't many Jp players still up.

It's been my experience that the Jp players are far more polite/helpful than the NA players have been.


I could not agree more. I was in a group with three other americans last night and between the ^^ and the kanji translator we managed to interact pretty well with the Japanese players. Just remember, they really frown on begging for items or money and twinking. If something is offered or they just follow around healing it is because they want to vs being pushed into doing it.

Oh, I play a white mage and one of the Japanese WM I ran into told/translated me that it is considered bad form to ask for a donation to heal someone. If a WM sees someone in need they should try to help that person out of a sense of class duty. Apparently I had pleased a few of the WM's friends in the starting town by just casting cure on any pc I could find, waving and then running off to the next person without asking for anything.


Edit: While it is kinda fun being the minority on the server in terms of languages, the translator interface is kinda clunky to be used in quick group situations. I forsee a bunch of ascii signlanguage being developed in short order.
Edited by: Wemic at: 10/30/03 11:47 pm

[DarthEnder]

I did the EXACT same thing as Elerion! So I'll reiterate:

Quote:next seven days

Quote:Thief III

!!!

Is this correct??

If it is, that'd be pretty @#%$ creepy, I just started playing thief 2 again because I happened on the big patch that I never played with the first 5 times. Omg! The stash in Garrets house is SO much more @#%$ badass patched!! "Classes are not that out of balance -AbsorEQ"

[EZ_Misdy]

I've been playing today, after spending most of yesterday trying to get on the same server as my friends. I spent a good two hours trying, and gave up. I tried for awhile again today until they had enough to buy a world pass. It's annoying not being able to play for the first day because no one can afford the 1000+ gil world pass fee yet.

The interface is really terrible, I always use the arrow keys to move, so its hard to get used to the WASD/numberpad. I use the compact keyboard, and there's not really many hotkeys for things, just ALT+M for some menu options.

I made a black made, and magic use involves WAY too much clicking. I have to target a mob, left click to open my magic menu, click the spell, click the mob. Macros are only able to be made for the CTRL/ALT + number, which are a pain to use because I have relatively little hands. Using the ALT/CTRL keys is always hard for me.

The camera angles are terrible and it's really hard to play in a third person point of view. Right now I just keep it in first person so I don't have to mess with it.

If the interface was better and magic use wasn't so tedious the game would be pretty fun. The graphics are very nice, and the gameplay is okay so far. It looks like there's plenty of content - quests, tradeskills, and missions. The moogle houses are also pretty neat.

I think I'm going to get an adapter for my gamecube or ps2 controller and use that to play with, because it seems like it would be a lot easier with a gamepad. I'll also probably switch to a melee class so it's not quite so much clicking to cast one spell.

[EZ_Travelian Mikado]

The problem I found, is that it was designed for the ps2... this game was brilliant, absolutely amazing during the beta test, easy to use etc... then again I was testing with the ps2. I'm getting a ps2 to PC controller converter at my next paycheck . Travelian Mikado - 59 Erudite Enchanter
Phibbet - Froaaak.
Jaesin - 52 Gnomish Rogue

[Krimzan]

I suggest a logitech wingman wireless. Wireless = good.

[EZ_Emmrys]

Live web cam:
www.playonline.com/ff11us...edia/wind/

ok after another night, I'll write a little more.

I ended up switching to the compact keyboard control scheme, and it makes ALL the difference. I once again have WASD movement, and most of the time I stay in first person mode. The camera simply isn't good enough to deal with in 3rd person IMO.

The one bad thing about 1st person mode is that the mouse is SUPER touchy when right-click looking around as you run. It might start panning slowly, but then ZOOM all the sudden you're looking up at the sky or the ground.

I've gotten my elvaan warrior up to level 6, and saved up about 1200 or so gil. Most of that gil has come from quests. The quests can pay pretty well, but can take a while to complete as well. I haven't found any quests that are quickly completeable for good money yet, not that I really expected to.

In terms of gear, I'm much more limited by level restrictions than gil now. Anything within my level range is rather easily affordable (from NPC merchants anyway). I've looked through the auction houses, where PCs put up items for bid, you bid on them, and you might get them. People will put up what appear to be customized or improved versions of the basic NPC vendor stuff, such as Bronze Sword +1, which will just add 1 dmg. Those items seem to get bids that are rather high.

I'm still in my starter gear/onion sword, and I'm really hoping to try to improve on that soon. I joined the Blacksmithing guild, but was too poor at the time to afford some of the smithing raw materials, so I haven't worked on it yet at all. The guild is kind of neat though, complete with NPC guildmembers working away, clanging and banging on things at the furnaces/bellows. If you talk to them they'll share a recipe, and even cast some kind of "spell" on you that may or may not raise your skill temporarily.

For Halloween there are all kinds of skellys/ghosts running around the towns, trick or treating. Apparently you can buy candy/crackers and give them to certain ones and they'll give you fireworks, or rarely a pumpkin shaped helm, or a staff with a bat on top.

The fireworks are really cool too. I saw one last night, when the player lit it (it was called Airman or something), it appeared as a pot on the ground, and the top blew off and fireworks shot into the air, and a little miniature goblin floated down on a parachute back into the pot.

So the atmosphere is very cool, attention to detail and style on art/models is wonderful. I have yet to group with anyone, but I wanted to get a handle on things before I "go social".

So far, I'm really enjoying myself. Oh, and because no one has mentioned it, the death penalty is losing 10% of the exp needed for the next level. At lv 6 it's about....200 exp? Which is equal to 2 even con mobs, or 4 "decent" con (even=white con in eq, decent = dark blue) So far, even's are giving 100exp, decent's are giving 50-72.

Damn goblins, which have GREAT models btw, have killed me so many times now. They are KOS types. Can't wait till I'm old enough to reap revenge.

Anyway, that's all I can think of. Now that I'm mostly past the UI challenges, the only thing that bothers me is the server issue. I can see it being very difficult to want to switch servers and lose everything on my char. Emrysx and Lucy - Feral Lord
Emryss Spynetickler - Redeemed Rogue of Xegony
Proud Member of Tainted Twilight

[EZ_Squink McPoke]

For those complaining about the interface with regard to the mouse, I can say with 100% certainty that you never have to use the mouse for anything, ever, ingame.

The - key on numpad opens up main menu, the arrow keys manipulate it. 8 6 4 2 on numpad move you around (default keyboard setting), 0 on numpad cycles through all targets, F8 targets nearest NPC (this includes doors, auction counter, interactive objects for quests, mining/harvesting/logging points, etc)

Enter key is the "use" or interact key, hit enter when an NPC is targetted and you talk to the NPC, if it is a shopkeeper they open up a buy/sell menu which you can manipulate with the arrow keys.

Combat, alt-A initiates combat with your current target, the combat menu is brought up automatically once combat is initiated, and arrow keys are used to traverse that menu (and in fact the menu is already the main focus of the arrow keys at that point once combat started). ALT-M to open up magic menu to cast spells. ALT-D to fire ranged weapon (I think that's it, going off memory here at work)

Using the mouse is actually probably the worst thing you can do cause it sucks, there is zero need for it, you can play the entire game without touching the mouse once, from the time you double click playonline icon to the time you log out back to windows desktop.

Just wanted to give another side of the picture to those complaining about the interface. The interface is actually GREAT if you start using it with a fresh outlook (i.e. stop thinking EQ)

I play in first person most of the time, third person when I need to look around me or want a wider view of combat (I play a white mage, so I am not usually in combat directly, third person camera angle is restricted while in combat, to only seeing what's in front of you, you can't swing the camera all the way around).

[EZ_SejinEQ]

When using spells you can set up macros for often used spell as well, makes it much easier

/magic "spell name" <t>

You hold ctrl or alt and the number of the macro. Need to remember to capitalize the first letter of the spell or it wont work and <t> is for the target you currently have. You can use <me> to have the spell or ability cast on you. The macro system is quite powerful and it would be best to get to know it. 200 macros can be set as well

[Brelkor]

Heres a good question ir two .. is there content? story? How big is the world? Is travel a pain?

[EZ_SejinEQ]

Its pretty hard to get around at the lower lvls, like how EQ was before the PoK ports, Nexus etc. You need to be a certain lvls before you use boats, you need a license to ride the Birds as well. The are Airships in the towns but you need to pay a fee and need a certain rank (rank is gained by doing missions).

There is a story line for the cities that you start in. I can't comment on the high end stuff but the Prologue is interesting as well. Better then EQ as for as story line atm. One quest i really liked was in Windhurst. The Hat story owner has a new model hat and your job is to advertise for him. If you talk to NPCs there is an emote that you show off the new hat. Certain NPCs will respond and the more you get to respond the better the reward

The World is pretty big to me atm since i am still starting and i have ventured too far out but there seems to be quite an amount of zones and sub zones

Sejin Saotome

[EZ_estragon pare]

Out of sheer boredom, I'm considering trying this out in the next week or so.

If anyone wants to join me, just to make it a little less lonely, you can AIM me at jwolfe0790. I know that getting on the same server is a pain, but it sounds doable.

est <center> not allowed<center>

[EZ_Bolep]

silly mistake sorry Edited by: Bolep at: 11/1/03 3:53 pm

[EZ_Deranged Gnome]

I have really been enjoying playing the game. The worldpass thing does suck though. Luckily, we had people who had played in Beta, and they made the money to get myself and other friends in. 4 people actually got on the same server by sheer luck. That was where we named home lol. The WP has 5 charges. It wound up being 220 gil per person.

It was odd. I have played 15 minutes of FF VII..I think that was the one. So I was lost in the world. I was screamed at by a guy at the Gamestop when I called a Chocobo a 'Giant Chicken'! <shrugs> It took me some time to get used to the controls and such, but it was good. It was funny. I was deja vu-ing the whole first night back to a summer night in 1999 when I first ventured into Norrath. <I don't expect anyone else to, but I did because I'm weird :P>

Lots of quests, I like the fighting system, which IMO is the best for a Rogue/Thief yet. I have heard the casting system is not so hot. I can't really comment on it.

Sure, it has weird stuff, and stuff I would change in a heartbeat if I had the power. But I don't, so I take the good with the bad. <the former FAR outweighs the latter>

Why I eyes ya...All the live long day...

[EZ_Matheren]

I just want to know, how are the Dragoons?

do they have massive jumping abilities, or what?

[EZ_SejinEQ]

Dragoons do have jump skill, 3 actually last one is like a mem blur. They get a pet Wyvern (once every 2 hours they can summon it again) and get atk bonuses vs dragons

Sejin Saotome <a href="http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=277669">Sensei Sejin Saotome</a><br>Grandmaster<br>

[EZ_Wemic]

And the music is sweet on a 7.1 surround sound system. The opening movie shook my room.

[EZ_Ragwheed]

Is there a Safehouse server yet?

What have we picked to all play on?

[EZ_Wemic]

Many NA players seem to be gravitating towards the Leviathan server.

[EZ_CogginsEQ]

I just bought the game with my cousin, and I am having a blast so far! I made a thief on the Sylph server named Sudian if anyone happens to catch me on there btw. Overall I like the game, havent experienced it much, but I like the combat as it lends a sort of old Final Fantasy look. With menus on the side of the screen and such as you fight. Will put some more up after I have played some more
"Suum Cuique" - Cicero

[EZ_Gnarwar Floatingbuffalo]

What server are you all on?

I'm on Carbuncle


"A 40oz to freedom is the only chance I have to feel good even though i feel bad"

[EZ_Healo]

playing on bizmarck here. send a /tell to Armadon if anyone wants to hook up.

[EZ_ZoldenShadowhunter]

Some amazing points:

The Music. Just about every zone has its' own excellent music. Every piece of music I've heard is so fitting, so wonderful, and adds to the immersion.

The Intuitative quest design. Quests in this are the greatest I've encountered so far. While the rewards sometime's aren't the best, the use of static in game objects in the world like a fireplace that you need to cook something on, or leave a fish in a bush make them unique. Some quests, or all missions even, have their own cutscenes. Cutscenes are also on things like passing through major gates, getting onto boats and the like.

The Artwork. Fantastic character models. The best armor designs and detail I have ever seen. While the face and hair styles are lacking, your character is quite real looking. You blink and move wonderfully. The animations themselves are fantastic. You can even clap while sitting and such, and I wouldn't be surprised if new emotes were on the way.

Overall Uniquity. Both you and monsters have 'limit breaks' basically, where you use your special skills once you are full of TP. Mobs like goblins toss bombs at you and they explode. Really cool combat moves, and the animations of hitting the monsters themselves is a cool thing. I've also heard tales of boat rides where you get attacked by sea monsters that npc's fish up. Things like that, and a ghost ship boarding your ship with skeletons is just cool.

There are alot of great points to this game. There is, however, some major bad points.

Communication Devastation. More than a high percentage of the people on any server speak Japanese natively. You're going to encounter a whole lot of people that can't even communicate with you at all. This, in turn, makes it difficult to find groups. I haven't even had a real group yet.

Worldpasses. Once you get by this, it's no sweat. However getting alot of people on one specific server is a damn quest in its own. A very nice japanese player gave me the exact gil for a wp the second I got on however, so I was good.

Leveling Unconventional. In your starting area, the surrounding 5 zones are all the same damn things at the same strength. I am having the most incredibly difficult time getting by level freaking 10. I play a thief, and they suck so bad until later on levels it's crazy. I'm at a point where I can't find a group but can't solo.

You get raped by means of quitting. If you quit for 3 months your account becomes deactivated for good. You can't use your registration keys anymore either. That means if you play for 3 months, and then feel like quitting for 4 months you can't come back. I've done that with more than 3 mmorpgs so that kind of sucks.

Overall though, it is a fantastic game worthy of a mere trial at least. I know I will get through the rough area here and most likely will be playing until the next best thing comes along.

[EZ_Matheren]

Quote:You get raped by means of quitting. If you quit for 3 months your account becomes deactivated for good. You can't use your registration keys anymore either. That means if you play for 3 months, and then feel like quitting for 4 months you can't come back. I've done that with more than 3 mmorpgs so that kind of sucks.

not so.

if you quit THE GAME, nothing happens. they can threaten character deletion but I doubt they'd do it.

it's only when you cancel your PLAYONLINE ACCOUNT, which is completely free and which you have no reason to cancel, and leave it inactive for 3 months, that you need to buy a new cd key (thus a new copy of the game).

so I repeat: you can quit the game and stay gone for a year and come back and re-subscribe and your character should still be there. but, if you quit the game AND cancel your PlayOnline account (again, no reason at all to do this) and don't re-register within 3 months, then your cd key becomes void.

[EZ_Lerkin Behinja]

I have two quick questions that some of you may be able to answer:

1. I speak VERY small amounts of Japanese. Any way to switch between English and it on-the-fly for better communication?

2. Whenever I go to the Create Character Screen, I hear the sound effects and can maneuver the menus, but I have no visual. Now I know this worked at some point on my machine, but I was ... err, not the most attentive individual at the time. Between creating my first character and now, I've updated video card drivers. Any advice? Edited by: Lerkin Behinja at: 11/2/03 9:46 pm

[EZ_Misdy]

Try turning on simple character creation at the final fantasy config menu. I had the same problem and that worked for me.

[EZ_Lerkin Behinja]

Apparently my mind has stopped making connections. I knew what that option did. I knew that option was off. Logic must have drained out of my ears while I slept. Thanks for the reminder.

Side point: Why the hell did they put in Tetra Master? Triple Triad was far superior! I'd kill hordes of Tarutaru for online Triple Triad ... hell, I'd do that anyway.

[EZ_Wemic]

Quote:
Is travel a pain?


I read somewhere that monsters will spawn on the boat as people ride it from place to place. If you get aggro, don't run below deck or people will be pissed. heh

[EZ_CreepyPete]

What's the monthly charge on it? Don't think I've seen anyone mention it yet and I'm firewalled here at work or I'd look it up myself.

[EZ_Lerkin Behinja]

Monthly Charges:
$12.99 for Final Fantasy XI account
$1.00 for each character after the first
$1.00 for Tetra master

[EZ_CreepyPete]

WTH is a tetra master? No one said nothing about having to train any fish.

[EZ_Thorgryn]

Tetra master is the card game from i think it was final fantasy 9

[EZ_Jaeden The Stinker]

So I'm going with a Tarutaru thief.
Does anyone have any ideas if this will horridly gimp me later on?
I was one of the few gnome rogues in EQ, and people always laughed at me. Till they realized starting stats were kinda pointless.
I'm curious if starting stats are somewhat pointless in FF as well.
Or if anyone knows any sites that have any documentation of thieves at higher levels.
Thanks! ~Jaeden~
~Nightshade~
*Smears peanut butter on her face, giggles maniacally, curtsies and vanishes*

[EZ_Snibbs Quickinshot]

I'm playing a taru thief right now on the Sylph server, only at level 6 but I already can see the difference in hit points it seems. I die alot faster than most others but I plan on going ranger/thief when I make 30 so I doubt i'll reroll. But if you plan on going thief as main proffession and are really only doing it for the profession, Mithra are probably the best, or Hume.

[EZ_Healo]

if you want hit points for your thief, subjob it with a monk. they have highest hp for classes.

[EZ_Phantom Rogue]

www.warcry.com

Then go to FF Link

GREAT info there.

[EZ_Matheren]

or just click here

[EZ_CogginsEQ]

Alright, I felt the need to post this immediately after finding this out cause its so awesome.

As most of you know, there is the job system in this game which you can get a subjob and such, mixing and matching classes. What alot of people do not seem to know is, that you can switch your MAIN JOB at any time to any other job availible and not lose the experience and/or skills gained in the other jobs you used(like in Star Wars Galaxies)!

E.G. I am a thief, level 5. I decide I dont want to be a thief, so switch my main job to a red mage. I become a level 1 Red Mage, but I KEEP THE EXPERIENCE AND LEVEL in the thief job, and have the option to switch back to it at my mog house at any time I please.

I know some of you might already know that, but last night in game it seemed ALOT of people were really really surprised when I told them. Makes it so much fun, switching your main job when you get bored or want to be level 1 again to hang with a new friend on the server and such!

P.S. I am a level 7 hume thief on the Sylph server, Sudian is the name look me up if anyone is there!

[EZ_Snibbs Quickinshot]

What area you in, Cog? I'm a lvl6 taru thief in Windhurst area on the Sylph server.

[EZ_Lerkin Behinja]

Level 6 Mithra thief on Alexander. Look up Erjik some time.

[EZ_Birchum]

Level 5 Elvaan Warrior on Siren, Rikatic --Rikatic Darklight

[EZ_halsfield]

tarutaru unite! KHDS 4EVA!! RAAWWWRRR

Eurynomous - lvl 2 tartaru white mage on carbuncle Edited by: halsfield at: 11/3/03 11:24 pm

[Nenjin]

Elvaan Thief on Cerebrus, Draven.

[deuce]

there's two ff threads! @#$% where's the locking to consulidate.

Anyway I'm playing on the phoenix server. Playing a Elvaan monk. Yeah I know not a thief, but i liked the master of melee. I was thinking of subbing as a theif. My trio is in windhurst at the moment. If anyones on the same server shoot me a tell.

[Brelkor]

Holy crap, Woody wasn't joking .. this is almost as bad as trying to install all of eq + expansions at once ... ok maybe not THAT bad

[EZ_Emmrys]

lv 10 elvaan warrior in San d'Orian, on Carbuncle server.

I just wanted to mention that it's been since the early days of EQ that I've actually gotten up a little earlier in the morning so that I have 30-45 mins in the morning before work to play this game (and watch Sports Center). Emrysx and Lucy - Feral Lord
Emryss Spynetickler - Redeemed Rogue of Xegony
Proud Member of Tainted TwilightEdited by: Emmrys at: 11/5/03 6:44 am

[EZ_Urusai]

I ALMOST picked this up last night. Had it in my hand and everything.
Finally convinced myself to finish the two games Im currently playing first, and that I was there christmas shopping for others not myself. Besides, I had already spent close to a grand.

[Nenjin]

Someone want to clue me into the rationale behind activating an ability or weapon skill, then having to re-open the menu to actually get it to go off?

I'm enjoying it, it's like being back in your first days of EQ all over again. My only gripe is the window system is kind of obnoxious, how 1/2 the keyboard commands dont work if you have a menu open somewhere.

[deuce]

I been struck with that too, Go to ablitys > Job > Boost and hit enter. to only wait a few minutes to realize it didn't go off and you have to hit enter once more oiiii

[EZ_Absolute Master]

Just use a macro. A simple touch of the button instead of going through menus for the ability.

[EZ_CogginsEQ]

Snibbs, im in Bastok area
"Suum Cuique" - Cicero

[EZ_Matheren]

I'm curious, did anyone here ever get an Error:3113 when trying to connect to the actual game (after logging onto PlayOnline)?

I've been getting it since I installed, and I don't think the servers are down. I didn't see anything on it in their FAQ, and the only thread about it on FFO Warcry had no solution either. I've tried connecting with my router, and also disconnecting that and going straight through my cable modem.. still no go.

anyone have this problem and manage to fix it?

edit: well I apparently fixed it by turning off DNS in my network settings. no clue why that would've worked, but oh well :P
Edited by: Matheren at: 11/6/03 10:18 pm